General Connected to WiFi but can't send texts

Don't be ridiculous. You can't send text messages (sms) via wi-fi! you need a good 3G/4G signal in order to do that. How many bars do you have on your phone? Also you may want to connect with your carrier to see if there is a cell tower outage in your area.

Also..if you're trying to send like a Google message or a Facebook message that's when you'll need wifi or data connection.

If you're trying to send a MMS picture message you also need a good 3G/4G signal.

 

I dont think "dont be ridiculous" is called for. There are no ridiculous questions here. Thats not how we roll :thumbdown:
He is right though. SMS uses a cellular connection. There are messenger apps that can send through wifi though if the other person has the app installed too

 

I know it's a little late but I've been looking up the same issue.

Firstly let me say that correct or not the issue in question is still incredibly relevant. For the past month I'll see quick pop ups in the status bar stating "no wireless network available connect to wifi for messaging." Just tonight the same message popped up as I drove through an area where I experience a 30-60 second long service drop. Only difference is it was in a direct message over my texting window needing "OK" to be selected. In retrospect I should have screenshoted it.

As side information I've recently been having trouble with SMS and MMS when connected to wifi. It's hit and miss with receiving and sending both when connected. When disconnected to wifi it's flawless on TMOBILE 4G LTE.

Any information would be greatly appreciated. I'll update for future problems people may have if I find anything useful.

 

Actually, regular sms doesn't use data, it uses regular network, so even when on wifi, your texts should still work, and even if you were sending a text that was long enough or contained a photo that required data, even when on wifi, your 3g/4g should still kick in to send the message, and then the data stops again. That's how its been for every Android I've ever owned.

 

Yah, I definitely don't think it's ridiculous when thats what the phone tells you.. Some people..

 

5 years after the original "don't be ridiculous" response... Guessing that was meant as a joke. Anyway, what is truly ridiculous is that SMS was not automatically bridged to TCP/IP by 2005... The fact that it still isn't has moved from ridiculous to ludicrous... Laughably absurd.

For others finding this, hopefully someone will post an android-focused solution. In the meantime, if you have a Windows 10 PC, you can simply add people to your "People " app (Windows contacts). Then type "Text Joe Smith" into Cortana for example to text the Joe Smith in your People app.

 

Yup, SMS is very much a GSM legacy from the 1990s. Maybe ridiculous, but that's how it is.

That would be Outlook or MSN messaging wouldn't it, and the party you want to message must be an MSN or Outlook user as well? An advantage of SMS of course, is you only need to know their phone numbers. All contacts I know use Wechat, so that's how we usually message each other.